April 11, 2011

Preckwinkle names state official new head of county environment department

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle today introduced a state natural resources administrator as the county's new environmental chief.

Deborah Stone, Stone, 54, will make $110,104 overseeing the county's environmental regulatory department, which monitors air quality and other pollutants at commercial sites.

Stone comes from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, where she worked as a deputy director and oversaw water resource issues. She also has managed the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission.

The county's Department of Environmental Control has a staff of approximately 24 and a budget of $1.6 million. It acts as the "eyes, ears and nose" for the state and federal EPA, county officials said.

The announcement came at a news conference ahead of Preckwinkle's appearance this evening in Palatine. The new leader will talk to officials in a village that previously threatened to secede from the county after her predecessor, Todd Stroger, pushed through a 1-percentage-point sales tax increase.

Preckwinkle quickly moved to lock in the elimination of the remainder of that tax hike in the coming years.

All 50 aldermen on the Chicago City Council had to file paperwork earlier this year detailing their outside income and gifts. The Tribune took that ethics paperwork and posted the information here for you to see. You can search by ward number or alderman's last name.

The Cook County Assessor's office has put together lists of projected median property tax bills for all suburban towns and city neighborhoods. We've posted them for you to get a look at who's paying more and who's paying less.

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Clout has a special meaning in Chicago, where it can be a noun, a verb or an adjective. This exercise of political influence in a uniquely Chicago style was chronicled in the Tribune cartoon "Clout Street" in the early 1980s. Clout Street, the blog, offers an inside look at the politics practiced from Chicago's City Hall to the Statehouse in Springfield, through the eyes of the Tribune's political and government reporters.